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The First Curse: Jealousy is a Powerful Motivator (Repost)

Erica, Free

It should come as no surprise, based on my childhood outbursts, that my first controlled curse was based in negative emotions. I still believe it was a success, despite Ella’s disapproval.

This curse begins, much to Ella’s dismay, in jealousy. I have never been a particularly attractive or charismatic person. Ella says this is common among magical folk as it is necessary for survival. True or not, I still ended up lacking two traits that our society highly values. I’ve done a lot of work getting to a point where I can simply live my life without worrying without comparing myself to others. Unfortunately, getting there required living through many experiences that I look back on and am ashamed of the way I felt.

In one particular instance, a friend and I went out for drinks (pre-pandemic). She tends to be busier than I am so I was excited for the opportunity to spend some time catching up with her. She is also much more attractive and charismatic than I am so I was disappointed but not surprised when a man much older than us accosted her at the beginning of the evening and kept her in conversation for the rest of the night.

I later learned that she was having just as miserable time as I was but in the moment I was too jealous to recognize the signs. There was a constant mention of her boyfriend and the maintenance of a physical distance between them. There were all of the linguistic cues women used to deaden a conversation, but not end it for fear of escalation.

I was ashamed of my thoughts and actions and how blindly I had bought into the societal dictate that for women there is no such thing as unwanted attention. I promised I would do better, be a better friend, next time the opportunity presented itself. I did not realize it would happen so soon.

This time, my friend, her boyfriend, and I we’re out with a large group of people which insulated us from skeezy older men and allowed me to passively enjoy the conversation happening around me. During a pause in conversation I glanced around the bar I just saw that same man from a few weeks before scanning the room and setting his eyes upon a group of three young college students before moving to the bar to order a drink.

I excused myself from the conversation and slipped easily behind the busy bar. Sometimes it is not so bad to be invisible. He noticed me this time. I locked eyes with him and motioned for him to come towards the bar, but he did not recognize me. He ordered a well drink. Apparently I was not someone he needed to impress with a pretentious order. As I made it, I thought of much he annoyed me that night he’d so presumptuously commandeered my conversation with a friend. And I thought of those three girls standing in a tight circle at a cocktail table in the corner of the bar, clearly not looking to interact with anybody else, and I handed him his drink. He paid with a 10 which I handed to the harried bartender at the register and told her he did not need any change and then I left.

I told my friend I thought I saw the man from a couple weeks ago on my way back from the bathroom. She recognized him with a sneer and noticed his trajectory towards the three college students in the corner. I watched with anticipation as he crossed the room, silently begging him to take a sip of his drink before he reached the table. He did, just before stepping in to their line of sight.

He approached them with all the confidence of someone who had known them for 20 years. They would have been toddlers at best. They looked at him with confusion and not a hint of recognition. Their conversation stopped with a quick flurry of glances and head shakes that confirmed none of them knew him. He set his drink down on their table, much to their shock. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe introduce himself, but no words came out. He tried again and again with the same result while the students looked on confused and concerned. One of them finally asked if he needed any help but he shook his head and managed to croak “No, I’m sorry,” and walked away. They closed ranks again and shrugged the whole incident off as drunk people antics, before returning to their conversation. I must commend them for not laughing throughout the whole ordeal. We certainly did.

-Erica

The Scarce and Ephemeral Joy of Novelty (Repost)

Carolyn, Free

There are some things I was never meant to enjoy for very long. First, of course there was my life. Now, there are all these cute things you make and take into the office. I understand why. Work spaces can be so bleak and a little personal touch can go a long way.

I suppose for me, it is my craving for novelty that conflicts with your desire to make pretty things and take them away. You can follow your things to the office. And you can go anywhere you like and see new things that others have created. I have only these three rooms (I don’t count the bathroom).

You have lived here for what, three or four years? And that is already long for this building. I have been stuck in this apartment going on 30 years. Sure, a new tenant brings a little bit of excitement, different furniture and decorations, different lifestyles and personalities to observe. And while I must say, Erica, I like you the best of all, at times I do still chase that quick burst of excitement. I can’t help myself I have lived with you for 10% of my afterlife and in reality if you have done very little to change the decoration of this apartment.

I don’t say this to convince you to redecorate at a rate that would satisfy me. That would not be sustainable on any budget. And I understand the amount of effort you have put into this apartment and environment. I say this only so that you will understand how delighted I was watching you plan and create these delicate little trays with match jars. It was a side of you I had never seen. Measuring out the dimensions of the items you wish to keep there, squirrelling away cardboard cereal boxes as you finished them, carefully measuring out the dimensions of each separate piece and of cardboard and peace of paper, cutting them all out and assembling the final product.

I was there with you the whole time. I delighted in your success and the thought that every time I looked at the tray would be a pleasant reminder of those evenings we shared watching television and me watching you create something.

So you can understand my disappointment when this little tray was soon sequestered away to your office. It is selfish, I know, to want something of yours to fuel my happy memories. But it is difficult when new good memories are so few and far between. I am not saying that you should have done anything different. I just hope that the next time you make something pretty, it sticks around for a while.

-Carolyn

Pillows on a recently made bed

A Smattering of Past Projects (Since I Have Nothing New to Share)

Erica, Free

In the absence of new projects to share, I figured I would share some old ones. These will be brief descriptions, rather than step-by-step reflections because honestly I just want a list of all the things that I’ve done all in one place. Hopefully the reminder that I used to do interesting things will motivate me to start something new. So here is a non-exhaustive list of the crafting and DIY projects I’ve completed in the past couple of years.

My Birdcages: I love my house plants. I had them even before I got my cats. And I was shocked that both my cats have an insatiable appetite for foliage. I figured birdcages would be the perfect solution, keeping my plants safe from sharp teeth and claws, but still allowing sunlight to reach them. I purchased two birdcages from Facebook Marketplace. One came with a wooden stand, which I lugged all the way to my basement to sand down and repaint a green that fits in my living room. Because my apartment, especially my living room, is a bit of a cave, I needed grow lights. I tried a couple set-ups before settling on 60-watt grow light bulbs in utility clamp lights. The set-up is not as cute as I originally imagined but still presentable enough to be in the living room.

My Small Dresser: I thrifted a low, white, three-drawer dresser for my apartment my senior year of college. It suited its purpose, but the paint job wasn’t great, and after painting my birdcage stand I figured I might as well paint my dresser. I still had leftover green paint, although not enough for the whole dresser, so I purchased a complementary dark blue color as well as new knobs for the drawers. This was another project that need to be carried all the way down to the basement before being sanded down and painted in multiple stages. I thought about alternating colors every change in profile that would be too busy. I settled on painting the center of the drawers as well as a green, rectangular outline along the top and then painted the rest blue. The rectangle on top is not exactly straight into the blue is not not as dark as I first imagine, but it certainly fits my decor better than a plain white for the painted dresser.

My Utility Shelves: I sometimes surprise myself when I remember that before I had my large set of shelves, I kept my TV on a small end table and I don’t even know where I kept my crafting supplies. When the end table proved inadequate, I decided to get some larger shelves. I liked the look of the black and wood IKEA shelves utility shelves, but I wanted to make them a little more formal for the living room, and also a little more exciting. I borrowed a staple gun from a coworker and purchased 3 or 4 yards of upholstery fabric from IKEA. I spent the night watching Grace and Frankie and stapling the fabric to the shelves. I love them, even though they are a pain to vacuum.

My Slipcovers: This project was born more out of necessity. My cats kept puking on my chairs. I figured it was easier to wash a slipcover than entire chair, but the slipcover patterns at IKEA leave something to be desired. I purchased more upholstery fabric and worked in fits and starts to create slip covers for my living room and bedroom chairs. The finished project product is sloppy and beginning to fall apart, but as my first ever sewing project I am very proud of them.

My Crocheted Blankets: I was really into knitting and crocheting in high school, although I never really advanced past scarves. After bringing all of my yarn to college with me, I started to make granny squares with the scraps from my various high school projects. I worked on them intermittently throughout college and then once I graduated decided I needed to finish the blanket. I took a long time and did require some further yarn purchases, but I am the proud owner of a homemade granny square blanket that fits well over my queen-size bed. With the leftover scraps from there, because there are always more scraps, I also completed a ripple blanket, which is wonky and subscribes to no particular color scheme but it is cozy.

Countless Embroidery Projects: Countless is somewhat of a lie. I could count them for you, but I don’t feel like it. Embroidery is by far my favorite creative outlet and there is more embroidery than anything else. Before I inflicted this curtain project on myself, I worked mostly on smaller projects like decorative hoops, bookmarks, and occasionally pillowcases. Looking back on those projects, I think it might be a good time to take a break from my curtains and maybe start something a little more inspiring.

After going through this list of projects I’ve completed in the past few years I think a couple of them merit a longer reflection. Maybe that will inspire me to start a different project.

(If I do a further reflection of a project, there will be pictures in that post. I was too lazy to get pictures this time.)

-Erica

This isn't a picture of the garden, it's just a picture that I have.

Past Project Reflection: Worm Bin

Erica, Free

Not all of my past projects have met my minimal standards for success. Last year, during those beginning days of the pandemic when I was not even leaving my apartment, I decided to start a worm bin. I normally take my compost to a super-secret location, but I was trying to limit my trips out of the apartment. I thought this would be the perfect time to start composting in my own apartment.

I was inspired by my aunt who keeps a worm bin in her basement. The supplies and instructions were quite simple. I ordered some 5-gallon buckets and a drill from Home Depot and purchased some red wigglers from a bait shop. I won’t go through the particulars of constructing the worm bin because there are plenty of helpful tutorials all over the Internet. The whole process was quite simple and took under 30 minutes.

Keeping the worm bin operational was a different story. As a newbie to composting, I was unaware of the sheer volume of browns I would need to balance out all of the green waste I was creating. I did not have easy access to freshly raked leaves as an apartment dweller, and newspapers are becoming more and more difficult to come by. I also did not take into account that my worm population would need some time to reproduce to accommodate the amount of vegetable waste I produced. My bin quickly turned anaerobic and filled my apartment with a foul smell. I was able to briefly correct this by filling it with household cardboard and grocery store circulars and turning it often to get some oxygen into the parts that had become an anaerobic slime.

Everything seems to be going okay until it came time to sift out the finished compost. I had to drag my bin out to the roof of the parking garage, use my poor excuse for a homemade sifter, and pick composted bits of eggshell and onion skin out of the dirt that I hoped to use for my house plants. Once I had a sizable amount of finished compost I just covered something even worse. Despite my best efforts to get all of the worms out, my compost was full of bugs. I appreciate those little guys helping me break down my discarded vegetable matter but I did not want them in all of my house plants. I thought leaving the dirt outside in the sun to entice some of the bugs to leave, but really it just enticed one of my neighbors to use it as an ash tray.

I thought maybe I could continue to use the worm bin and gift my compost to friends who had outside gardens. I did have at least one taker who took about 3 gallons of dirt from me. But then my bin went anaerobic again and I decided it just wasn’t worth it. By then we knew it was no longer a Covid risk to be outside away from other people, so I donated my worms to my super-secret compost pile and started taking my compost there again. Maybe one day when I have my own basement, I will start another one. Or when I have a yard I will start my own compost pile. But for now I am just glad I have a way to compost at all.

-Erica

Past Project Reflection: My Thrifted Dresser

Erica, Free

I’ve always loved my little white dresser. I bought it second-hand during my senior year of college to store my ever-expanding wardrobe and to help my bedroom looks less spartan. The paint job wasn’t great. It had been quickly painted with a single coat of white paint that left splotches of the wood showing through. There was a giant splinter coming off the corner of one of the drawers. And a few of the knobs were stripped to the point that they cannot be tightened. But I liked that it was solid wood and the perfect size to provide a decent amount of storage without being obtrusive.

When I moved to my current apartment, white actually went quite well with the color scheme. The paint job was still splotchy and the knobs were still janky, but it actually looked all right. And then I redid my birdcage stand. After months and months of idly scrolling through DIY blogs, dreaming of one day doing a project like that myself, finally did and it was pretty easy. I figured I might as well do it again.

I decided to try something a little more interesting, and settled on a two-color design. I also would use this opportunity to change out the stripped plastic knobs for new metal ones. I picked a shade of blue that I thought went well with the leftover green paint, and dragged the dresser down all three flights of stairs to my parking spot in the basement. After sanding the whole thing down and priming it (a very important step), I painted on all of the green. This included the raised front face of the drawers and a rectangular border along the top. I painted the rest of the dresser blue, including the borders of the drawers, and use painters tape to block off that green rectangle so that it can stay green. This is not turn out perfectly but I deemed it good enough.

The blue did not turn out as deep as maybe I would have liked, and some of the pencil outline of the green rectangle still shows through. It’s definitely not perfect, but it has a little more personality than just a plain white dresser, and now at least all the knobs are fully functional. After my Marie Kondo spree a couple years ago, it graduated from being a clothes dresser to being my substitute linen cabinet, a job which suits it very well.

-Erica

(There are going to be a lot of generic cover images for two reasons. One, I’m playing catch-up and taking actual photos just falls by the wayside. Two, I don’t have any “before” pics because I painted the dresser long before I started this blog)

Making Jam Is Easy, Canning is the Hard Part

Ella, Free

Oh, summer, with its oppressive heat and humidity also brings an abundance of fresh fruit. Stone fruits and berries are all in season and relatively cheap. Unfortunately, the temptation to buy large quantities is in conflict with these fragile fruits’ limited shelf life. One way to preserve these tasty fruits for later in the year is to make jam.

I know it might seem daunting, but making jam is actually quite easy. Canning is the hard part, and if you have enough room in your freezer for a few containers of jam in choice flavors, it is completely unnecessary. Homemade jam is perfect on toast, ice cream, or oatmeal. All it requires is fruit, a little lemon juice, a pot, and maybe some sugar or spices if you’re up for it.

Just take that extra fruit that you bought, but forgot to eat, cut it up, and throw it in a pot. I recommend starting with at least a pint of fruit. This can be all the same fruit, like those peaches you were going to eat with lunch every day and then didn’t or the hodgepodge of berries you impulse-bought on your last grocery trip. Rinse the fruit and cut it into bite-sized chunks if necessary. Add a little lemon juice to help break down the fruit and cut some of the sweetness. This quantity will vary depending on your tastes, but I usually use a tablespoon per pint of fruit. Bring the fruit slowly to a simmer, stirring constantly. The fruit will begin to break down and thicken as the water boils off.

Taste as you go and add sugar, ginger, cinnamon, or whatever you feel is necessary. When the jam has reached its desired thickness, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Transfer the cooled jam to a freezer-safe container and store until ready to use. Depending on the amount of fruit you use, the amount of jam you get could be very small. It’ll still be enough jam to use on a few pieces of toast or on some vanilla ice cream.

Now to the big questions:

  1. Why would I stand over a boiling pot of fruit for an hour in the middle of summer? Well, it might make you feel cooler when you step away from the stove. And sometimes we have to put in a little effort in order to waste less. If it’s ungodly hot out, you can always freeze the fruit before it turns and make jam later.
  2. Why would I spend all this time making jam when it’s so easy to buy? Like I said, I’m talking about solutions for fruit that’s about to go bad. You can’t get that at the grocery store. And sometimes it’s a nice break from the troubles of reality to stir a boiling pot of fruit and not think of the rest of the world for a while.

 -Ella

Why Vampires Make The Best Depression Buddies

Free, Jane

I waffled back-and-forth over whether or not I should write this, but with Erica prioritizing herself through this mild depression, as she should, I felt I us sad folks were rather underrepresented. Ella does her best to try to understand Erica, and it is helpful to have someone who is willing to give you the space you need and can demonstrate what it will be like on the other side. But sometimes, you also need someone who knows exactly what you’re going through, from the anxiety to the depression and the exhaustion. Someone who understands without hesitation. So I am here to explain my role as Erica’s emotional support vampire.

I’ve known Erica for a while, and Ella for just a bit longer. I was drawn to the building independently about a year before Ella and Erica moved in. I was delighted to have some supernatural company and became fast friends with both of them. Which is how I ended up as Erica’s emotional support monster during this latest wave of depression.

It was only fitting that I be there for her as she helped me through my last particularly rough bout with depression. I had endured a rather tragic event and came to a traumatic realization that nearly paralyzed me and Erica was with me every step of the way. Although you wouldn’t know because both she and Ella have done wonders to protect my privacy until this time. And no, this particular tragedy was not my transformation into a vampire. While tragic, I was transformed nearly 200 years ago and for the most part have accepted my fate as a vampire.

One overlooked benefit of vampirism is that it makes it easy to be there for the people you care about when they need you. We are largely inactive during the day so we make great binge watching buddies. When we do venture out, we must stay out of the sun which makes us great companions for the trip to IKEA or Home Depot that has been weighing on you but right now seems to overwhelming.

Some reasons might be more specific to me, but are still heavily influenced by my vampirism. I love listening to people, and hearing what human life is like, even the bad stuff. Just to know what I missed out on. And I know exactly what it feels like wake up wonder why on earth you were dealt this lot, and that there are certain problems that you have to deal with no matter how difficult and exhausting and complicated they are. And I know the feeling of hopelessness when you cannot immediately change your circumstances. And I know the feeling of waking up one morning and, even though your circumstances have not changed, something has clicked in your brain and you have found the world once again full of joy and wonder. And I will never stand in your way when that morning comes when that morning comes arrives. I know so intimately what it is like to be robbed of the joys of human life that I would never, in my own indulgence, drag someone back into a depression keep myself company.

So get yourself an emotional support vampire. Unless you are not magical. Then we might try to eat you.

-Jane

Past Project Reflection: A New Plant Home

Erica, Free

I barely mentioned the process of redoing one of my birdcages in my last post,  but both of them ended up requiring quite a bit of work. The first one was more straightforward. As I discussed last time, I sanded it down and repaint it. The second one did not require any painting, but I wanted to cut a hole in the bottom so that my lemon tree could grow up into the birdcage. This required help from a friend with power tools.

I repainted my first birdcage while still deep in the throes of a DIY blog addiction. This was my first DIY project, and I became immediately acquainted with the very unglamorous side DIY. I wanted what all the bloggers had, a light airy workspace and impressive array of power tools. But they had the benefit of being firmly established bloggers with sponsorships and, often, a second household income.

I laid out my dirty camping tarp in my dingy parking spot and got to work. At this point, I did not have any power tools. There’s no outlet near my parking spot. I took off the door of the base is by hand, which was not hard, and sanded the entire thing down by hand, which was. I primed the whole thing one night after work, trying my best not to get any dirt or cobwebs mixed in with the paint. The next night, I painted the whole thing green. A second coat went on in the morning, the fixtures were installed later in the left the afternoon. After three days of parking on the street, I was able to move the stand up to my apartment, move my car back into the parking space, and move my plants into their new home.

Eventually, my plant collection began to outgrow the first birdcage. I bought another one, this time with a plastic bottom instead of metal so that I could cut a hole in it and place the lemon tree’s pot below the cage, allowing the tree to grow up into the birdcage. I thought it would be relatively easy. My plan was to heat up a kitchen knife and stab it through the plastic to melt it (I know, a terrible idea). Once I had perforated a full circle, I would just punch out the hole in the bottom of the cage. But the plastic turned out to be much thicker than I expected. I turned to a friend who does have power tools and she brought this Dremel over to try to help me. Even with power tools the process proved to be more difficult than expected. We broke a number of product before we finally succeeded. The result is a bit sloppy but highly functional. No although that original lemon tree house died (RAD) plant collection, like a gas, has expanded to fill the space provided.

My next adventure with these cages was grow lights. The space available for the cages and the layout of my apartment meant that both cages required grow lights. I started with a pair of LED lights that simply did not provide enough light for all the plants in the cages. They were also not particularly attractive, so I looked for an option that was both functional and aesthetically appealing. With very little research, I ordered a string of cafe lights for each cage and several grow light bulbs. I thought this would be a cheaper and less-cluttered look than the number of clamp-on grow lights that I would need for all my plants.

 I was excited to see that the grow light bulbs fit in the string of cafe lights and lit up, but they immediately grew very hot. A few quick texts later to a friend who knows much more about electricity than I do and it was clear I had created a fire hazard.

Thanks to my hubris, only one string of lights was returnable. The other found a home with my sister. She uses them with the intended lightbulbs.

I returned the unopened lights and purchased a set of industrial clamp lights and put the grow lights in those. The end result is that one of my birdcages is at least somewhat like I had originally planned, although with far more wires. But my plants are happy and my cats can’t eat them. That’s all I can really ask.

-Erica

Ads for Free Things: Turn Your Plants into More Plants

Ads for Free Things, Free

Do you ever look at your few, measly little house plans and think “Man if I had more plants in here, this room would really come together”?

Do you wander through the house plant section of Home Depot every time you go to pick up an extension cord, but never purchase any new plants?

Well, boy do I have news for you. Many common house plants can be easily propagated and turned into new plants, especially if the original plant is healthy. A quick Google search will let you know whether you need to separate some root balls or take a simple cutting and put it in water. And soon you will have twice or three times as many plants.

Sure, it would be nice to immediately have a full, luscious fern, but those cost money. Growing a tiny propagate into a just-as-beautiful fern only takes time. Some people say that time is money and to an extent that is true. But sometimes you don’t have any money, and you just have time. Think about all the time that you spent deciding whether or not to spend money on a new house plant. You are probably going to spend so much longer waffling back-and-forth, but if you just nipped off that spider plant pup and planted it today you would have a nice fully mature plant by time you would have decided to buy one. And all you will have to buy is another pot and some dirt. Much cheaper than a whole new plant.

Plants: get them for free from your own house.

And if you’re starting with nothing or just one variety try our other products, such as Getting Plant Cuttings From Your Friend.

An Update on My Life and This Blog

Erica, Free

The fact that I’ve kept up with this blog for six months is pretty astonishing, considering my apparent allergy to follow through. I was very excited to share my crafts and my story, and to give my friends a platform to share their stories as well. I began at what I thought was a reasonable pace to write my own posts, and edit, post, and market everyone else’s.

But I also have to live my life. Whether I like it or not, I have a full-time job and chores to do. I also have to do all of the crafts that I write about. And I have cats and myself to take care and a surprisingly active social life.

It seems my life has gotten busier since I started this. I learned to take pride in my abilities, perfect or not. I learned there was a ghost in my house who has a lot of opinions about the books I read and TV I watch. I tried my best to wrangle my jealousy, and with Ella’s help, successfully cursed one of my college friends. All while social distancing restrictions relaxed and work got busy again.

And I have another big change coming up. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I’m moving. As much as I love the Marceleste and all the friends I have there, I’m sick of fighting other tenants for the laundry and I just want central air. I decided that my job is dreadful enough that I at least need those two luxuries.

So what does this mean? I’m taking a bit of a hiatus to figure out how I can better run this blog, and market it, without running myself ragged. I need to make sure I’m living a good life the rest of the tine. During this break, you might intermittently hear from other contributors. I don’t want this to be a complete break.

So what will it be like when we come back? Well first of all, we probably won’t be posting quite as often. As grateful as I am to those of you who read this blog regularly, I do want to build a larger following of subscribers. So that means less time writing posts, and more time marketing them. I’m trying to figure out better ways to direct Instagram directly back to the blog, and I’ve been thinking about (yikes) TikTok.

I’m also going to change the focus of some of the posts. At first, Ella and I we’re trying to give step-by-step recipes and craft tutorials, partially as a learning tool, and partially to attract readers. But I think we should start focusing on what makes this unique. Which is:

  1. Our stories
  2. Showing the actual cost of these projects
  3. Showing the amount of time these projects take.

Three things you won’t find on any other craft blog

So thank you, for being part of the story, and sticking with it through all the twists and turns.

-Erica